I've had the idea of using a knight's "L" shaped movements on a chessboard as a springboard for a Capital of Helsinki gag for a while. At first, I intended the knight to be in his horsie shape, and to have his antagonist be a snarky gang of teenagers who vandalize his property and laugh at him while he impotently looks on. I couldn't think of a way to do this outside of the venue of a one-panel gag strip, and I definitely didn't want to do one of those. (Waaay too many newspaper comics use this format)
I eventually decided to make the knight a human being and to also make his adversary a little more traditional. This allowed me to make the chessboard aspect a hidden constraint until its reveal on the last panel. I think that makes this work better than my initial concept.
I also like the dragon's smug expression on panel three. I think that really sells the gag.
Writing and drawing this strip didn't bring much friction. I didn't bother using any references and the color work was largely intuitive. All in all, it's a nice little gag that doesn't have to rely on shock humor, dick jokes, or gross out gags. It's always nice when I can think up one of those.
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